AIIMS doctors blame 'infra lacunae' for nurse's death

The hospital's resident doctors have cited 'infrastructure lacunae' in the maternity operation theatre as the main reason behind the staff nurse's death during an operation.TNN | February 27, 2017, 07:17 IST

New Delhi: The controversy over death of an AIIMS nurse, allegedly due to medical negligence, is far from over.

The hospital's resident doctors have cited 'infrastructure lacunae' in the maternity operation theatre as the main reason behind the staff nurse's death during an operation.

The resident doctors of anesthesia department have written to health minister J P Nadda to reconsider the decision. Calling the final report by AIIMS as inappropriate, the doctors have said there was an infrastructure lacunae in the back table of the maternity OT, where Rajbir Kaur was operated, leading to her death.

"We have found a number of infrastructure lacunae in the back table of the OT, where Kaur was operated upon, which directly contributed to poor outcome in her case," says the letter written to Nadda, also the president of AIIMS.

According to resident doctors, the back table in the maternity OT was never meant for general anesthesia practice as it lacks basic life-saving facilities. A committee was constituted to investigate the alleged negligence by doctors. Kaur had suffered a cardiac arrest during the surgery on February 4, leading to her death.

Resident doctors said the senior resident whose services have been terminated had clearly denied Kaur's case initially, considering the maternal safety issues for conducting anesthesia in back table.

"If the administration does not reconsider this decision to sack the senior resident doctor of anesthesia, while not acting against senior faculty and administration responsible, we will be forced to go on strike," said a resident doctor. Sources said even the victim's family was not happy with the institute's action and may seek legal recourse for justice.

Kaur was admitted on January 16 for a normal delivery. The labour was progressing well till 5am the next day when there was a sudden drop in fetal heart rate, necessitating an emergency surgery. A probe by an internal committee found that an anesthesiologist was not present during the caesearean section operation. Instead, the job was performed by a junior resident who neither had the experience nor was trained enough to handle such a complicated case.

The child was stillborn and Kaur went into distress due to aspiration- entry of stomach material into the respiratory tract.

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